Author(s): Ryan, Joanna, J. Matt Jameson, Olivia Fudge Coleman, Carrie Eichelberger, Jessica A. Bowman, Lyndsey Aiono Conradi, Susan S. Johnston, John McDonnell
Published: December 2019 in Education & Training in Autism & Developmental Disabilities
URL to article
Research Focus Area: Asset-based best practices for serving students with disabilities/students in special ed
Abstract:
A high-quality education in the social studies is recommended by the National Council for the Social Studies to promote civic competence and democratic participation for school system graduates. Currently, limited empirical information exists to inform social studies instruction for students with significant intellectual disability (SID), especially within inclusive academic settings. Effective content instruction in social studies areas, aligned to the general academic curriculum and presented in the general setting, may help to improve post-school outcomes for students with SID. A multiple probe across participants single case design was used to determine the effectiveness of paraprofessional-implemented inquiry-based social studies instruction, presented within an embedded trial distribution schedule in general education classrooms. Study results suggest that this method of instruction had a positive effect on recall of information presented during history lessons for three junior high school students with intellectual disability. After repeated practice, students showed improvements in recall of information when using the structured inquiry-based instructional framework without direct instruction. Paraprofessionals and general education teachers generally found the intervention to be effective and acceptable. Implications for classroom practice and for future research are discussed.
Research Question(s):
How can students with significant intellectual disability (SID) best learn social studies content in general education settings?
Methods:
Intervention
Setting:
The study was conducted in a public junior high school in a mid-sized school district located in a large suburban community in the Mountain West region. The school district was a collaborating school district local to the University student participants were three junior high school students with intellectual disability. The staff participants were two paraprofessionals who implemented study activities with the participating students in the inclusive setting, and two general education teachers who provided whole-class general education history instruction throughout the study
Key Findings:
- The results of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of embedded structured inquiry-based instruction to teach social studies concepts for students with SID
- Student participants used the structured inquiry-based instruction to acquire and recall information without prompting from others following repeated use of the process.
- instruction using a structured inquiry framework could provide a basis for the shaping of more complex questioning, researching, and communication skills that students with SID may use to complete academic work
- and to increase general problem-solving capacity.
- Study findings also support the use of task analysis, time delay, and a system of least prompts to provide social studies instruction for students with SID.
- The general education teacher and paraprofessional considered the instructional procedure to be mildly disruptive in the Utah Studies classroom. Such an attitude was not supported by social validity assessment responses given by school staff supporting the other students.
- The occurrence of disruptive behaviors warrants consideration within the context of embedded instruction: disruption is cited by school staff as a reason for the exclusion of students with SID from general education settings during academic instructional times.
- The instructional procedures described in this study may help to promote civic competence for some students with SID
Implications:
Educators should
- make use of an embedded instructional trial schedule to present inquiry-based social studies content instruction
- juggle several instructional responsibilities as they provide educational services for students with SID, such as
- promoting authentic inclusive educational experiences
- implementing rigorous and evidenced academic content instruction aligned with the grade-level curriculum
- providing instruction for the more functional and process-based skills that may lead to improved post-school civic outcomes for students
- provide instruction using a structured inquiry framework
- allow for additional collaboration and planning as needed to promote inclusive instruction via embedded instruction when students use behaviors disruptive to the learning environment
- To reduce the potential for class interruptions for a student who uses disruptive behavior during instructional tasks, it may be necessary to pair EI with evidenced procedures to reduce the occurrence of disruptive behaviors.
Limitations:
- the small number of study participants limits the generality of findings. While sufficient within-study replications occurred to demonstrate the effectiveness of embedded structured inquiry-based instruction for the study participants, it cannot be assumed that similar effects would occur for other participants.
- the academic content presented during study phases did not always synchronize with whole-class content. Although efforts were made to keep the content presented during the intervention temporally close to the general academic content of the classroom, there were several days when study participants received instruction on different concepts than the general body of the class. Due to this, it is possible that there was some loss of authenticity of the inclusive instruction provided during this study